VANCOUVER -
Nikola Brown-John scored the game-winning goal with just one minute and 12 seconds left in overtime to give the No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds a 2-1 triumph over the No. 8 Saskatchewan Huskies in Canada West women's hockey action in Vancouver on Saturday night.
BOX SCORE
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"When playing against a great team, great teams find ways to win. And a part of our team identity is the three R's - one of them is 'resilience' - and these are those situations where we have to look back to what we said is our foundation and to start living it, feeling it, and...making it a reality. And that's what we did," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas.
Sarah Casorso opened the scoring for UBC before Saskatchewan's Kaitlin Willoughby tied the game up to set the stage for Brown-John's OT heroics.
Brown-John actually took a penalty early in the extra frame to put the visiting Huskies on a 4-on-3 power play, but another T-Bird hero, goaltender
Samantha Langford was spectacular, making six stops in overtime. The native of Pense, Sask. stopped 30 shots in total on Saturday night.
Her counterpart Karen Lefsrud blocked 22 of 24. She also solid in overtime as UBC pressed offensively after killing off the Brown-John penalty.
"They're from home province, so it was nice to get to play them," said Langford, referring to Saskatchewan. "There were nerves going into the game for sure, but it definitely fuelled my game. I was just focused on following the puck and sticking to what I know how to do."
"Our goaltending was great," said Thomas about Langford. "With three [starting goalies] we could go with anybody. It keeps teams guessing...But she's from Saskatchewan and has been working hard in practice every day, so she deserved that opportunity. She stepped up to the challenge and proved herself."
On the winning goal, Casorso ragged the puck behind the net before passing it to a wide open Brown-John, who just got enough of her stick on the puck to pop it through the legs of Lefsrud.
Following a scoreless first period of back-and-forth play, UBC opened the second period in exciting fashion when, on a three-on-one break,
Tatiana Rafter fired a cross-ice pass to an open Casorso, who easily slotted the puck in the net.
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At 13:38 of the second frame on a Huskies' power play, the 'Birds were scrambling on their crease to clear the puck and, with a crowd of players screening UBC netminder Langford, Willoughby was able to shove in a goal to even the game.
That goal gave Saskatchewan momentum as the Huskies ended up outshooting the Thunderbirds 28-19 over the final two periods and overtime. But Langford stood up to the challenge, surrendering just the lone tally.
"It was nice that we stayed in it the whole game, and we picked it up when we needed to," said Langford. "We had a few breakdowns but I think there's always a couple lapses in every game - can't be perfect...so I just tried to back them up when they needed it."
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The T-Birds had a less successful time on the power play than the night before, going 0-for-4. Saskatchewan went 1-for-7.
With the victory, first-place UBC (9-2-1) now owns a three-point lead on Saskatchewan (7-3-2), Alberta (7-3-2) and Regina (8-4) in the Canada West regular season standings.
Saskatchewan and Regina will play each other next week in Saskatoon.
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Next up for UBC will be a road trip to Winnipeg, where they will confront the Manitoba Bisons for the first time this season.
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